Bimaa Light

Get it? Beam-a-light? Beam of… Never mind.

When Sarah emailed me to see if I was interested in participating in the Bimaa blog tour I almost broke the internet with my haste in saying yes. I had already planned on obtaining the pattern and using and abusing it for my girls’ fall/winter wardrobe. There are a few fun variations (and in the next few hours or days I hope to share another that I made, and another fabric combo of this one) but my favourite hands down is the cowl-neck version. Sarah makes the cutest patterns, and how cute is her little girl? Hair for miles and such a good-sported little model! If you’re wondering why Olivia doesn’t model on here much, you clearly don’t know Olivia, ha. Granted, she did model a pair of leggings for me for exactly one photograph yesterday, which is 100% more than usual, but she was asleep so I didn’t even try.

Yes, that cowl is built right into the shirt. You can do it all in one fabric for your normal cowl-neck version, or you can do a contrast for a faux infinity scarf. Although a real infinity scarf seems more versatile, this one won’t pose a choking hazard so it can be worn for play. It won’t get dropped behind the couch, left at school, or pulled off 30 seconds into the day. I do own cute scarves for my kids, but for my particular children, I love them but they generally get left at home or worn for shopping trips.

Nicole loves this top, declaring it super cozy and that she can hide in the cowl. Sadly, due to two factors – one, I asked my hubby to print the pattern for me on his laser printer and forgot to specify to unclick the resize to fit to page button, two, my girls have long torsos for their legs – this one won’t stay hers. I knew I was taking a risk just making the pattern instead of reprinting it but I take that kind of risk when I’m sewing for Nicole, which is exactly why I didn’t bother trying to cut something for Olivia out of the resized print error. It’s a bit snug and definitely a bit short for her body. I shortened the sleeves at her request, and I’m glad I did, as it will make it more wearable for Olivia. She loves it so much that I’ll be making her the exact same sweater again and they’ll be twins. However, that was all my bad and I’m excited to reprint this pattern and use it again properly.

As for the sewing, this came together beautifully. If you’re just starting off sewing garments with knits, I really recommend something like this with bands for finishing hems. Confession time: since my laptop with the instructions was all the way upstairs and I was all the way downstairs, I didn’t consult the directions once. I had heard that the cowl was the most challenging part of this pattern, but if you think of it as another band like the wrist and waist cuffs it’s really simple. It’s actually the waistband that I put on inside out and trimmed down accidentally as a design feature to add a bit of texture and edge with the black and hot pink with metallic animal print design. The fabric I used for the cowl didn’t photograph very true to color but here it is online.

My pinkalicious girlie freaked out over this metallic pink goodness and it is right up her alley. Girly, fun, full of light, and a bit unusual but if you ask me that’s the best way to be.

Check out the other bloggy goodness on the tour, and if I get my other two Bimaas-in-progress done today yet I’ll let y’all know. And in case that leaves you with the impression I talk like a sweet southern gal, I just love the word y’all and recently discovered while travelling that I sound very Canadian. If we were chatting in person I would probably say, for example, “That photobombing Jack Russell is pretty cute, eh?”